Headlining this year’s Jazz Fest are the Upstate Latin Jazz All Stars. The band features well-known area musicians Barry Blumenthal on piano, Jorge Cuevas on percussion; Mike Dubaniewicz on sax; Nick Frenay on trumpet, Jimmy Johns on drums, and Darryl Pugh on bass.

Nick, a 2009 graduate of MPH, recently completed a two-year fellowship at the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific and is now at the Berklee College of Music, where he has been awarded the presidential scholarship. Downbeat magazine has recognized Nick as a soloist, composer, and arranger with awards at both the high school and college level. In addition to performing widely throughout the U.S., he has recorded four CDs and mentored hundreds of middle and high school students at jazz clinics.

Eric Cohen, music director at WAER, will serve as master of ceremonies for Jazz Fest, which will also feature the MPH Sixth Grade Band, the MPH Jazz Winds and MPH Jazz Lab Band, and STEEP, the local band founded by MPH Senior Parker McQueeney. Sophomore Jake Ford also plays with STEEP, which in January beat some 40 bands to win the third annual Big Break contest, a four-round, four-month battle of the bands held at the Westcott Theater in Syracuse.

Jazz Fest is sponsored by “Friends of the Arts,” the parent organization devoted to supporting literary, performing, and visual arts experiences at MPH. 

Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students and can be purchased in advance by calling Cherie Bisnett at 446-2452, ext. 120 or emailing cbisnett@mph.net.  Tickets will also be available at the event.

Created by 2005 MPH graduate Courtney Stewart, the map will take you on a walking tour of the bat habitat, the windmill test center, the greenhouse and solar panels, composters, the new community garden, and the proposed rain garden. There’s a stop at the Center for Early Learning, too, with its numerous energy efficient and earth-friendly “green” features. The back of the map offers detailed information about each site.

Red, White and Green Day is the perfect opportunity to see firsthand many of the initiatives the School has undertaken in the interest of environmental responsibility and sustainability. Stop and talk with our Green Ambassadors tomorrow, too – they’ll be wearing special green t-shirts and are prepared to give you the scoop about the ways MPH is working to be a good steward of the environment.

She says students will be required to have had a physical within the previous 12 months by the start of sports practice or by the start of classes on September 5 if any of the following apply:

• they are new entrants to MPH
• they play sports for the School, or
• they are entering Kindergarten or Grades 2, 4, 7, or 10.

Ms. Adams asks parents to plan accordingly and call the Health Office (446-2452, ext. 127) with any questions. Completed physical exam forms may be brought to the Health Office or faxed to 1-866-846-0684.

Gold awards went to Chris Lane for his profile of Interim Head of School Ted Curtis and to Alec Sessa for his “Se Anything” column. Solomon Ochieng’s “The Surreal Life” column earned a silver award, and Joelle Rotella took a silver for photography.

Bronze awards went to Sam Woodward for his sports profile of MPH Sophomore Ricardo Medina-Gonzalez; to Zack Mitchell for his entertainment feature on the Young Danes; and to Gabby McSherry for design.           

The Rolling Stone received a gold award for “most improved” newspaper and a bronze for best overall newspaper.

Advisor Melissa Chessher noted that the judges of the Press Day competition make no distinction regarding the size of the school or newspaper staff or the number of advisors a publication has.

“Many competing high schools have quadruple the number of students, double the staff, and at least two advisors,” she said.

Congratulations to The Rolling Stone staff on exceptional and well-earned recognition!

NCC, the network operated by Syracuse University journalism students, highlights Junior Matt Engel’s desire to see more people eating healthier. Matt has been routinely working with Mary Judd, who manages the MPH dining hall, to come up with new lunch dishes that are interesting to fellow students, tasty, and healthy. He explains his interest in gently steering students’ food choices in this video. 

ELLE online calls it a list of “noteworthy newcomers, burgeoning talent, and emerging faces in pop culture, fashion, digital, and beyond….They’re part of the latest crop of scene stealers who’ve built a name – and a following – for themselves before their 30^th birthday.”

Carrie, a member of the Class of 2002, is already an accomplished actress (she appeared on Broadway in “Mamma Mia!”) and now is building a career as a singer. She released her debut album, “Echo,” last month.

Visit the ELLE website to read more about Carrie and vote for her as THE under-30 name to watch!

A facilitator from All About Learning led students through a LEGO® Robotics workshop similar to that presented in late November for Middle School students. Both programs were funded by grants from the MPH Parents’ Association.

Working with LEGO® Robotics sets to build robotic vehicles, Fifth Grade students followed instruction guides that contained some intentional flaws. Students had to work together to adjust and perfect the vehicle designs.

“This takes a lot of teamwork” said Fifth Grader Jacob Roy, whose classmate, Leo Alaghband, added, “It takes a lot of concentration and it’s really fun.”

“The result,” teacher Amy Abdo reported, “was the successful construction of mini vehicles such as flipper cars, steam rollers, rally racers, and motorcycles, which the students then raced in the hallway.”

Emily Neuner (left) and Sydney Schulman look for the built-in errors in instructions.

Both paintings by Ms. McGinley are for sale. A graduate of The College of St. Rose, Ms. McGinley holds an M.F.A. from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is a signature member of both the Central New York Watercolor Society and the Cazenovia Watercolor Society and has taught art for 29 years. During her career at MPH, she has taught in Lower, Middle, and Upper School.

While a Junior at MPH, Theo sought to start a student rocket team. With the support of then Head of School Baxter Ball, Theo assembled a team that built a rocket and traveled in the spring to The Planes, Va. to participate in a national competition sponsored by Aerospace Industries Association.

The MPH team, competing with more than 950 high school teams, tied for fourth place. That won the team the rare opportunity to compete in the NASA-sponsored Student Launch Initiative.  The team held design reviews with NASA engineers, working via numerous video conferences to improve the design of their test rocket, and in the fall, the team traveled to Huntsville, Ala. to launch its rocket.

Theo went on to college at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, graduating in 2008. Since then, he has worked as a propulsion test engineer for Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX, a private-sector space exploration technologies corporation.

SpaceX says it is developing “a family of launch vehicles which will ultimately reduce the cost and increase the reliability of space access by a factor of ten. Coupled with the newly emerging market for private and commercial space transport, this new model will re-ignite humanity’s efforts to explore and develop Space.”

Theo recently flew to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to aid in the loading of the Dragon spacecraft, which will sit aboard the Falcon 9 rocket on its upcoming May 19 launch. That launch will be the first attempt by a commercial company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Theo has also been involved in the development of the Launch Abort System, which he says SpaceX plans to use “for emergency escape from the rocket when we have astronauts abort or for landing the Dragon spacecraft on Earth, or possibly Mars!”

“It’s a super exciting time to be in the aerospace industry, and I am so thankful for all the support and encouragement that I was given during my entire time at MPH,” Theo says.

He recalls that, “MPH gave me a very unique opportunity, allowing me to bring up the desire to start a program and follow a passion that has taken me to a career. I remember working on my Sixth Grade science project, testing the thrust of small rocket engine with Chad Gregory. And now, 14 years or so later, I find myself in a similar position. The rocket engines are bigger, louder, but the challenge is just as exciting. I’m so thankful that MPH supported us throughout our projects, with constant encouragement to push our boundaries.”

Fifth Grade art students are creating a unique installation piece for the MPH library that, when completed, will bridge the worlds of art and literature.

Under the guidance of Lower School art teacher Linda McGinley, students began the project by making handmade paper from cotton fiber pulp and small pieces of colored cellophane.

In subsequent steps, the handmade paper is folded into different shapes, structural forms that eventually will be linked together. Students then add reading-related text to each of their pieces – words especially significant to them, perhaps the name of their favorite author, perhaps the first line of a book, perhaps simply the words “read” or “library” or “learn.”

Fifth Graders’ individual pieces will be strung and hung in the library as a single installation piece demonstrating the connection between art and literature. Nearing completion, the finished project will be a student celebration of the creativity that gives rise to both works of art and the written word.

Fifth Grader Claudia Cook makes handmade paper